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The Awesome Adventures of Clonathan - Ch 2 - Return to the Dark

CHAPTER 1: THE AWESOME ADVENTURES OF CLONATHAN IN ALWAYSLAND

Once, there was a village full of people who looked just like him. Really, exactly like him. As if the entire town was made of twins, or misplaced mirrors. Of course, the girls were just something else. All looking the same, but females.

Then, there was a travel through space, another world, a quest and a princess that he almost married. But no, he was too young to get hitched and destiny just got in his way. He moved on and he forgot even the princess' name. Really. He couldn't make it in his head.

And then-- then he was traveling through space once again and reality broke loose. He vanished, possibly made a guest appearance here or there, but thing was, he no longer followed any path that made sense. He had been detached from any sense of continuity.

Meet Clonathan. A young man (you know he's a clone, but what difference does that make?), who bears a Sigil symbol somewhere in his body. It's supposed to be a mark of power, but he can't remember what it was for. Somewhere, deep down in his mind, he might believe it does compel others to say the truth, but, was this true or was this just a different kind of dream?

Now, meet Alwaysland. No one knows if it's an island, a city or just another world. But who cares where it is? It just IS.

Last edited by Sojourn; 11-20-2017 at 08:23 PM.
Reason: Requested Title Change

This was just a regular sunny day. Nothing really major was going on and no one expected it to be any different than the last one or the one before. But they were wrong. And you should be thankful for what was about to happen, otherwise this story would bore you to tears.

Anyway, as I was telling you, it was a sunny day. A few clouds adorned the sky, if only to add something to see when you looked up. And there was this huge shadow-- yes, a gigantic shadow that began as a spot in the sky and started growing until it became a giant iron ball that was literally, falling out of the sky.

The Flower Ladies, a tribe of very smelly women in the odd shape of flowers were watering themselves when they noticed the monstrous ball approaching their land. They ran like crazy. Not that the Flower Ladies were any smart. There was something about not having too much room in their heads to have a brain, but let's not dwell too much on this because it wouldn't be polite. Anyway, the Flower Ladies ran and ran as the giant ball finally crashed in the middle of the grass where they liked to take regular and healthy sun baths. The iron ball was perfectly shaped, not that they cared since they just couldn't stop screaming. "Thankfully," would say a deaf man, "none of them got crushed." To the full-listening ones, it was just a shrieking nightmare.

Indeed, the giant iron ball had cracked. Metallic sounds came from inside of it as the rest of the Flowers Ladies, once again, ran in panic.

"Armageddon!" Some screamed.

"Amaretto!" Some other said.

Lady Rose just rolled her eyes at her community.

"You know something?", said Violet who oddly enough, was standing right beside Lady Rose. "You talk about good manners and my supposed lunacy. Well, dear all-powerful-all-pinky Lady Rose. Rolling your eyes at the rest of us doesn't make you any better."

"Dear. I thought you had already dried away."

"I'm sticking like poisonous weed to you."

"I couldn't have said it best." Said Lady Rose as she rolled her eyes once again.

The two flowers were about to continue bickering when something-- someone, came out of the cracked iron ball.

"Flowers!" Said Clonathan as he finally faced the light outside of the ball. "I love them all!" He said as he chopped Lady Rose off the ground.

"Oops!" Said Violet. "Mr. Human, you just killed Lady Rose-- Not that I really mind, tough."

"You've just made your worst first impression ever!" Those were the last words of Lady Rose as she finally, dried away.

Clonathan looked around and noticed all of the flowers staring at him in panic. Some of them were screaming "Amaretto!", but at this point, he decided not to ask. The flower screaming the loudest was precisely Violet. Not out of pain or fear, but just because she wanted to. A few yells later, she approached the young blond clone.

"You're a murderer now, you know that?" She said with a very friendly smile to her face. "But I have to admit that you really made my day. Lady Rose was annoying me to death. I think it was only fair you killed her. Now, you're my knight in armor." And she blew a kiss to him. "Sadly, our love will be told as a tragedy, because of law and everything."

She stepped aside as a giant tree with hands and legs grabbed Clonathan as if he was, well, a flower.

"An Ent!", screamed Clonathan in horror.

"An 'ent'? What's that? You can call me Enthony, though", said the tree creature with a wink. "So, do you want immediate execution or trial by fire and water? You know, you just killed Lady Rose and it's the law."

With teary eyes, Clonathan gave it the best puppy eyes he could.

"But I just got here! I didn't know that flower was alive. It was just a horrible mistake. I meant no harm!"

The tree creature looked at Clonathan with deep interest. "Ignorance won't be your best defense, sir. If anything, I'd suggest you go for lunacy. Your petals look oddly enough. You might have a chance there." Without further words, Enthony walked away from the flowers with Clonathan in his hands.

"Wait, Mr. Enthony! Can I go with you?" The tree creature looked down and noticed small Violet yelling from the ground.

"Sure!" Said Enthony. "Never pictured your kind as the nomad one." It picked the flower and put it on its shoulder. Their journey had just begun.

Clonathan just couldn't believe what just happened. He had no idea where he was or where he was going. He was so so far away from home, from his family, from the other clones that made up for so many brothers and sisters. He thought he was finally in the right path back home, but it looked like it was not meant to be. The breeze was turning colder as the sun started to fade in the distance. The rumble of Enthony's walk felt like small tremors that made his skin crawl. He tried already to bring some sense into the tree's mind, but it was as if it wasn't listening at all. Enthony just wouldn't respond. Couldn't the giant realize he wasn't from this place? After all, he only made an understandable mistake--

"I killed a flower--" He closed his eyes as they got filled with tears. He never gave it much thought, that a plant could feel, have emotions, or that it could even die because of him. He had no right to take the life away from that strange rose, yet he did. He had managed to be brave against all odds, to fight demons, to wear an armor, but this-- this was so different. Now he was the villain and there was so little he could do about it.

With every step of the enormous tree, Clonathan felt as if it was walking in his entrails, bringing him closer to the end of his days, realizing there was no defense against what he did, because deep down he knew he was guilty.

Clonathan faded into sleep with a burden that he had never felt before; and as the night grew colder, Enthony covered him with leaves, protecting him from the breeze. "Sleep well, little one."

The first rays of sunshine landed right on Clonathan's face, forcing him to open his eyes. He felt as if he had slept for a century with a rat lying in his mouth. He was hungry, he needed some water and to stretch some. Sleeping on a tree wasn't the best of ideas. He turned his head making sure his neck was in its right place when he noticed the big city in front of him. He couldn't hold his breath, he hadn't seen anything this metallic in his entire life. There were no shacks, no castles and definitely no green.

The ships in the air reminded him of the invading Negation fleet, back in his home planet, when his village was massacred. He couldn't help the shivers running up and down on his back.

"Where are we?" He asked Enthony.

"This is Alpha City," the walking tree replied. "This is where the law is forged and where our seeds are processed."

"But it's so metallic-- I've never seen something like this. Where's the green?"

The giant tree looked at Clonathan with wondering eyes. Could it be true that this blond creature was not from these lands? But to pass judgement was not his call to make. He just had to deliver the prisoner and make sure justice would be served.

"You play innocent quite nicely." Said Violet waking up from her slumber. "If I hadn't seen your murdering ways, I could even trust you." The flower blinked several times until it finally managed to ask. "What's your name? I don't think we were properly introduced. I'm Violet, by the way. And I'm a violet."

"I'm Clonathan. I used to have many titles depending on the place. I could have been king. I was a brother. I was even a farmer at some point. But it looks like now I'm a murderer."

"You are so dramatic", said Violet. "You could easily be a flower. I would like you better than Lady Rose, that's for sure." She paused for a moment. "Now that I think of it. I think I like you best. Lady Rose was a waste of space. She's better now. Well, not really. But I'm definitely better now, that's for sure."

Enthony, carrying Clonathan and Violet walked inside of the hyper-shiny metallic building, only to meet a man that obviously seemed out of place. Well, calling him a "man" was stretching it a little, since he was a man-desk; half man, half desk; and he was a little annoyed.

Checking on a book that seemed too big for anyone to bear, he kept reading and reading, ignoring those standing in front of him. Be certain the man-desk had seen the three travelers. He just couldn't mind at all.

"Excuse me, sir--" Enthony spoke trying to make as a little noise as possible. Trees are like that, they prefer to stand proud and be noticed than speak to get someone's attention. "Sir--"

"I know you're here," said the man-desk, or desk-man, depending on the mood he was. "I'm certainly busy and having you here is helping me so little with my hard work."

"I don't want to intrude, mister, but I'm bringing in a creature who has been accused with murder charges."

"And why do I care?", said the man-desk with his eyes still stuck in the book.

Enthony just stood there for a moment wondering what to do. He was not supposed to beg for justice. After all, this was Alpha City, the place where law was forged and seeds were processed and all that blah blah blah.

"Go! Go! I don't want this place to be covered in dry leaves!" Concluded the man-desk. "Leave now!"

With a deep sigh, Enthony walked out of the door once again. This meeting made so little sense. What was he supposed to do now?

"You could let me go." Said Clonathan with a wide smile, taking a wild guess on what the tree was thinking.

Enthony walked out of the House of Justice still wondering what had just happened. Justice couldn't be delivered because the man in charge couldn't care less. What was he supposed to do now? He had a criminal in his hands, literally, and now he didn't have where to put him. Clonathan kept on doing his best at puppy-eyeing, but nothing seemed to work. Trees didn't have that kind of sensibility. And so, Enthony waited for a moment outside of the building. It wasn't that long, but it was obvious that his roots were already growing comfortable in that soil.

"You shouldn't stay here too long," said one of the cardboard guardians. "You really don't want to be stuck in front of the House of Justice. Nobody would ever water you."

"He does have a point," said Violet still half asleep. "You don't want to stay here and I certainly don't want to live in a city if no one will give me a ride back to the Flower Village."

Enthony shook his head. Violet's complaints were distracting and he wanted to speak with this exotic guardian who addressed him without being requested. The creature was definitely made of cardboard. It didn't seem too strong, yet it worked as a strong fella guarding the House of Justice. Enthony was wondering what would this creature do when it rained, but its thoughts got interrupted once again. "I insist about you not wanting to be stuck here," said the guard.

"Where can I go?," asked Enthony dramatically for the first time in its life. "I don't know what to do with this criminal", he pointed at Clonathan, "and no one seems to care in the building."

"Hey!," Clonathan complained. "I haven't been judged a criminal yet!"

"Oh, but they will." Said Enthony carelessly, so he could continue talking with the cardboard guardian. "So, I'm stuck. I don't know where to go with the-- uh-- the suspect of homicide."

Clonathan frowned.

"There's a hotel right around the corner," said the cardboard guardian, "you should try in here tomorrow, once again. You might be luckier some other day. You know, today's Monday and the workers in here just get a little touchy."

Enthony sighed and started walking to the hotel. A tree in a hotel. Yeah, that was going to work just right.